I shrugged. “Go nuts. Okay, VP, what can I do?”
He grinned. “Go check on your woman. You guys need anything, shout or text and we’ll bring it down. We’ll keep you closed in there until we have news.”
Well hell, I can do that.
“Thanks.”
He nodded, and went to lean over Grease and his laptop.
“Jesus, you copping a feel?”
I laughed as I opened the door, and pulled it closed behind me. I suddenly had hope that we’d get through this, even if Grease was a snarky bastard.
Glory
Henley came back downthe stairs, a sheepish look on his face, and an almost shyness in his overall demeanour.
“What’s up?”
He shrugged, dropping heavily onto the sofa beside me. He grabbed the remote and aimed it at the TV.
“Let’s watch something while we wait.”
I snatched the remote and set it beside me.
“No. What happened up there? It sounded like a fight.”
Henley grimaced, dragging a hand through his hair.
“Do we really need to talk about this?”
He groaned as he looked at me, and I raised my eyebrows at him. I could wait him out as long as he wanted, and he knew it.
“Fuck. I’m just freaking out about fucking this up. I mean, your safety is the only fucking thing that matters, and I’m already messing it up because we don’t even know where he is, and he could be on his way here right now, and I’m completely clueless. They’re up there doing all the work while I sit down here with you like a fucking liability!”
I rested a hand on his and smiled, because he had no idea how cute it was when he went on a ramble-fest like that.
“Are you done?”
He huffed a sigh, dropping his head back on the sofa.
“Jesus fuck. I could go on…”
“I don’t doubt it. Can I speak now?”
He side-eyed me and shrugged.
“You can try, but I might not be done. You know how I am once I get started, and besides, what if he shows up and they dealwith him before I even get involved? I want a piece of him too. I want to make him pay for every bruise and every-”
I slammed a hand over his mouth to shut him up, and his eyes widened, but he didn’t push me away.
“Sweetheart?” I couldn’t really make out the word, but I knew what he was going for.
“I’m just going to say this once, so shut the mouth and open the ears, got it?” He nodded silently.
“You aren’t messing anything up. This is on me, no…still talking… I’m the one who brought this fucker into our lives, and I’m done being sorry about it. Not because you don’t deserve that, but because I need to move on. I need to accept that I chose wrong, and I won’t do that again, now-”
Whatever I was saying was cut off as my phone started ringing and we both froze. What if he was calling me? What if he was literally ringing to tell me he was coming for me? There was no way he could have this number, but then he had ways of finding stuff out that we didn’t want him to know.